The free world is the new continent in cyberspace that we have built so we can live here in freedom. It's impossible to live in freedom in the old world of cyberspace, where every program has its feudal lord that bullies and mistreats the users. So, to live in freedom we have to build a new continent. Because this is a virtual continent, it has room for everyone, and there are no immigration restrictions. - Richard Stallman -

This tutorial shows how to prepare an Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) server with nginx for the installation of ISPConfig 3, and how to install ISPConfig 3. Since version 3.0.4, ISPConfig comes with full support for the nginx web server in addition to Apache, and this tutorial covers the setup of a server that uses nginx instead of Apache.

ISPConfig 3 is a webhosting control panel that allows you to configure the following services through a web browser: nginx and Apache web server, Postfix mail server, MySQL, BIND or MyDNS nameserver, PureFTPd, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, and many more.

If you want to use nginx instead of Apache with ISPConfig, please note that your nginx version must be at least 0.8.21, and you must install PHP-FPM as well. For CGI/Perl support, you must use fcgiwrap. This is all covered by this tutorial.

Please note that you cannot use this tutorial for Debian Squeeze because Squeeze comes with an older nginx version (0.7.67.) and does not have a PHP-FPM package!

Please note that this setup does not work for ISPConfig 2! It is valid for ISPConfig 3 only!

Now you have to partition your hard disk. For simplicity's sake I select Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM - this will create one volume group with two logical volumes, one for the / file system and another one for swap (of course, the partitioning is totally up to you - if you know what you're doing, you can also set up your partitions manually).

Select the disk that you want to partition:

When you're asked Write the changes to disks and configure LVM?, select Yes:

If you have selected Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM, the partitioner will create one big volume group that uses all the disk space. You can now specify how much of that disk space should be used by the logical volumes for / and swap. It makes sense to leave some space unused so that you can later on expand your existing logical volumes or create new ones - this gives you more flexibility.

When you're finished, hit Yes when you're asked Write the changes to disks?:

Afterwards, your new partitions are being created and formatted:

Now the base system is being installed:

Create a user, for example the user Administrator with the user name administrator (don't use the user name admin as it is a reserved name on Ubuntu 11.10):

I don't need an encrypted private directory, so I choose No here:

Next the package manager apt gets configured. Leave the HTTP proxy line empty unless you're using a proxy server to connect to the Internet:

I'm a little bit old-fashioned and like to update my servers manually to have more control, therefore I select No automatic updates. Of course, it's up to you what you select here:

We need a DNS, mail, and LAMP server, but nevertheless I don't select any of them now because I like to have full control over what gets installed on my system. We will install the needed packages manually later on. The only item I select here is OpenSSH server so that I can immediately connect to the system with an SSH client such as PuTTY after the installation has finished:

The installation continues:

The GRUB boot loader gets installed:

Select Yes when you are asked Install the GRUB boot loader to the master boot record?:

The base system installation is now finished. Remove the installation CD from the CD drive and hit Continue to reboot the system:

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